The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-04-02
OUR DUMB RELATIONS.


1t was said of st. Francis of Assist,
that he had attained, through the fervor
of his love, the secret Of that deep amity
with God and His creation which, in the
language of inspiration, makes man to be
in league with the stones of the field, and
the beasts of the field to be at peace with
him. The world has never been without
tender souls, with whom the golden rule
has broader application than its letter
might seem to warrant. The ancient
Eastern seers recognized the rights OF
the brute creation, and regarded the IN
necessary taking of the life of the hum
blest and meanest asa sin; and in almost
all the old religions of the world there
are legends of saints in the depth of
whose peace with God and nature all life
was sacredly regarded as the priceless
gift OF heaven, and who were thus ena-
bled to dwell safely amid lions and SER
pents.
1t is creditable to human nature and
its unperverted instincts that stories and
anecdotes of reciprocal kindness and af
fiction between men and animals are
always listened to with interest and ap-
proval. How pleasant to think of the
Arab and his horse, whose friendship has
been celebrated in song and romance. OF
Vogelwied, the Minnesinger, and his be-
quest to the birds. OF the English Quaker
visited wherever he went by hocks of
birds, who, with cries Of JOY, alighted on
his broad-brimmed hat and his drab coat
sleeves. OF old Samuel johnson, when
half blind and infrm, cropping abroad Of
an evening for oysters for his cat. OF
Walter Scott and John Brown, Of Edin-
burgh, and their dogs. or our own Tho
reau, instinctively recognized by bird
and beast as friend. Emerson says of
him: " His intimacy with animals sug-
gested what Thomas Fuller records OF
Butler, the apiologist, that either he had
told the bees things or the bees had told
him. Snakes coiled round his legs; the
fishes swan into his hand; he pulled the
woodchuck out of his hole by his tail,
and took foxes under his protection from
the hunters"
In the greatest of the ancient Hindu
poems sacred book of the Mahab-
harata-there is passage of exceptional
beauty and tenderness, which records the
reception of King Yudiauthira at the gate
Of Paradise. A pilgrim to the heavenly
city, the king had travelled over vast
the companions of his journey, had all
fallen and left him alone save his faithful
dog, which still followed. He was met
by Indra and invited to enter the holy
city. But the king thinks of his friends
who have fallen on the way and declines
to go in without them. The gods tell him
they are all within waiting for him. JOY
| full, he is about to seek them, when he
looks upon the poor dog, who, weary and
wasted, crouches at his feet, and asks
that he, too, may enter the gate. Indra
refuses, and thereupon the king declares
that TO abandon his faithful and dumb
friend would De as great SIN as to Kill
a Brahmin.
Away with that felicity whose price is to
abandon the faithful!
Never. come veal or woe, will leave my faith
full dog.
The poor creature, in fear and distress, has
trusted in my power to save him;
Not, therefore, for life itself, will break my
plighted word.
In full sight of heaven he chooses to
go to hell with his dog, and straightway
descends, as he supposes thither. But
his virtue and faithfulness change his
destination to heaven, and he finds him
self surrounded by his old friends and in
the presence of the gods, who thus honor
and reward his humanity and unselfish
love.-John G. Whittier, IN Our Dumb
Animals